Helmut Newton is Following Me

Or vice versa. Saw one of his exhibits in Paris last year and here is a different one in Budapest. In both cases, the exhibitions are huge. This one had  about 5 rooms of several different projects. No Cindy Crawford, but Liz, Angelica, Andy Warhol and an interesting David Bowie shot. There was a room of fashion photography and what was interesting about that is it featured shoots he did for American Vogue, Italian Vogue, French Vogue, etc. As you might guess, the most risque were the French--since the models were mostly nude, it was difficult to know what was being advertised.

Unfortunately, the museum made you pay for their permanent exhibit as well as the special exhibit so I felt obligated to go to the permanent exhibit which was not good. Maybe those Hungarian masters are well known to Hungarians but their brochure featured their one Breugel as one of the highlights of the museum.

I believe one should always try the local burger--this one was the opposite of the totally raw one I had in Paris. I believe they started frying it last night.  Speaking of raw, I think it's now safe for me to report I did not get food poisoning from the steak tartare with a raw egg in the middle that I had in Bratislava. I did not think I was ordering that; I thought I would get small strips of grilled steak and there was no mention of a raw egg.

My elevator didn't work when I left to go to the synagogue so I walked downstairs--it is 4 1/2 flights of stairs and I live on 2. Some people live on 6 so I knew they'd get it fixed by the time I got back; if not, I was going to take the afternoon and walk up to the apartment and never leave.

On my list of things I didn't see last time was the Dohany Street Synagogue. It is a stunning building, built in the mid-1800s. It's the largest synagogue in Europe. Again, I couldn't get far enough away to get a good picture. It has a Memorial Garden and also a Jewish history museum.

Since I eat lunch too late, I'm never hungry for the big Hungarian meal so ordering just an appetizer is working well. Tonight I had duck liver pate which wasn't as good as Johnny's and also twice as expensive, but it was tasty and served with a lettuce salad with fresh fruit.  Their salads are really good and I also like how they put tomatoes and cucumbers on sandwiches like a club sandwich or burger. There was no eating outside tonight, though--apparently, all the restaurants took their heaters in for the summer. It's cold, rainy, and windy now.

Off to watch some news--I can get all the English speaking news channels but if a good show like "The Big Bang Theory" is on, it's dubbed. I hate when they do that--they do that in Poland too. Speaking of my dislikes, I also don't like that you have to beg to get a check in these restaurants, everywhere I've been here in the East. There can be people waiting for tables but I'm sure you'd be allowed to sit at yours for hours if you never asked for the check. On the flip side, I've never seen such fast service, again, in every country I've been in. Some restaurants have 100 things on the menu and they still will cook your food in under 10 minutes. It makes me wonder whether they have everything ready in the back, just waiting for someone to order it. I'm sure that's true of that hamburger I had today but the gourmet dishes like grilled goose liver are always perfectly cooked.